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Monthly Archives: February 2010

Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40; John 1:43-51

Today is the first Sunday of Lent, which is why we switch over to the Liturgy of St. Basil with its longer prayers and different selection of hymns. Prior to the ninth century, the first Sunday of Lent was a day in which we remember the prophets, particularly Moses. We see this in the Epistle Reading for today:

Brethren, by faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. — Hebrews 11:24-25

This reading goes on to describe for us all the things accomplished by Moses and the people of God in the OT.

After the ninth century the Church added another layer of meaning on top of this first Sunday of Lent — the Sunday of the Prophets. Starting in the eighth century, the Church was wracked by the iconoclasts, who tried to destroy the icons. For 150 years, the Church fought with iconoclasm. People died — martyred for the cause of having icons in the Churches. Ultimately, the iconodules (the lover of icons) won the argument and the icons were restored to the Churches. This was deemed so important and vital to the faith that the Church declared the first Sunday of Lent to be the Sunday of Orthodoxy — of Right Belief.

If we read the proclamation that the Church says every year on the first Sunday of Lent — a passage from the Synodikon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council — we find that is says something rather remarkable:

This is the Faith of the Apostles.
This is the Faith of the Fathers.
This is the Faith of the Orthodox.
This is the Faith which has established the Universe.

This seems to be a pretty strange thing to be saying about a piece of wood with a picture painted on it — that this is the faith of Moses when he refused to be called the son of the Pharaoh’s daughter:

This is the faith that established the Universe.

If we look at the word faith — πίστις in Greek — it comes from a root meaning to be trustworthy, to have faith in, to believe. God is trustworthy. We can put our faith in Him because we know He will do what is right and good — He will do everything in His power to make sure we can be with Him in His Kingdom. It is through Him that the world is established. In other words, we trust in Him that the world is established. We trust that despite its fallenness the world continues to exist because of God, His will and His lovingkindness. We trust that the fullness of His Kingdom will become manifest. Thus we say that this is the faith that established the Universe. This is the faith:

If we deny the ability of the Church to depict Christ and His Saints in icons, we open the door to call into question that this ever happened:

If we can’t depict Christ, if we can’t make a picture of someone who was really there — who ate fish, who had the mark of the nail in His hands, who people touched and heard and saw — it follows that maybe all of this stuff didn’t happen. Thus, to the Church, the icon is necessary.

If we say definitively that YES we can depict Christ and His Saints, then we definitively say:

YES Christ really did become a human being!
YES Christ really did go to the Cross!
YES Christ really did rise on the Third Day!
YES He will come again!

So on top of the Sunday of the Prophets — who declared Christ and whose prophecies ultimately foresaw that which is depicted in the icons — the Church established the Sunday of Orthodoxy and the celebration of the Restoration of the icons.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear Christ telling Nathanael:

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. — John 1:51

This is in contrast to what St. Paul tells about Moses, the prophets and all the people of the OT:

Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. — Hebrews 11:39-40

So here we are, gathered as the Body of Christ, better off than Moses was when he walked the earth because we have this:

At the time of Moses you were not allowed to make any image of God because nobody knew what He looked like. We do. Christ tells us:

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. — John 14:9

We have seen the face of God. We have seen the heavens opened. We have seen angels ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. The question before us, then, is what do we do in response to this awesome gift that has been given to us by our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ?

The answer is found in the person of Philip, who was the one who sought out his friend Nathanael to tell him:

We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth… Come and see. — John 1:45, 46

Come and see the heavens opened. Come and see the angels ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. Come and see:

We are called to be like Philip. We are called to go out into the world and declare the Good News. We are to declare that we have seen the face of God and that He has become one of us in order to cross the divide that existed between us and Him in order to unite us to Him. We are to declare that that which was out of reach at the time of Moses is right here and right now.

So let us go to our friends and our families and say, “Come and see.” On April 11, we will formally open our doors to friends and families to come see our Church with an Outreach Sunday. Invite our friends and neighbors to come and see what Orthodox Christianity is all about.

But, today I pray that we don’t wait until April. I pray that all of us, as part of our Lenten journey towards Pascha, take advantage of all the things that the Church has to offer — the prayer, the fasting, the almsgiving and the extra services. In this way we can come close to God and His Christ. In this way we allow the Holy Spirit within each of us to burn brightly so that in our everyday lives people will wonder what is it that we have that they do not. Allow them to not only see us, but this:

Isaiah 3:1-14

And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, everyone by another and everyone by a neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the base to the honorable. Someone will even seize a relative, a member of the clan, saying, “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule.” — Isaiah 3:4-6

In the images that Isaiah uses for the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem is a metaphor for humanity’s relationship with God. When we turn our back on God, what we have left is the equivalent of boy princes ruling over a heap of ruins. God created us from nothing and without Him, it is to nothing that we shall return. Thus, no matter how much power and wealth we may be able to attain in this world, it is all for naught because we can’t take it with us to the grave. All the power and gold in the world might as well be a heap of ruins for all the good that it does us without God — the One who sustains the world.

Reading this passage, I am reminded of the atheistic societies of the 20th century and all of the damage — economically, culturally, environmentally and personally — that they managed to inflict upon the world in less than a century. My wife grew up in Communist Romania, and one of the many examples of the black humor that arises out of a people yoked under such a rule is this observation:

If the communists were put in charge of the Sahara Desert, within five years they’d be importing sand.

In the end, the leaders of the atheistic societies were boys presiding over a heap of ruins, insisting that they were at the cusp of a utopia the entire time. They are a living, historic example of the delusion that says we don’t need God.

Isaiah 2:11-21

For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high; against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the high mountains, and against all the lofty hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the pride of men shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. — Isaiah 2:12-17

There are two ways to translate Isaiah 2:12, and both are accurate because both are represented in the Greek and the Hebrew. The first can be seen in the translation above where the Lord is against all that is lifted up. The second is the idea that the Lord is above/over/upon all that is lifted up. In other words, we have all these things that we put value on, and raise up to a point where we covet these more than we want to be with God. Isaiah give us a list of these things that his contemporaries highly valued: the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, high mountains and hills (holy places for pagans), towers and walls (to protect cities and all the valuable stuff therein) and the ships of Tarshish and other beautiful craft.

God is over and above all these things because He created them from nothing. They only exist because He wills it. God is against these things, because we have made them into things that separate us from Him. They manifest and are a source of sin.

One of the things we must learn as Christians is to read the OT through the lens of Jesus Christ. On the road to Emmaus, the resurrected Lord instructs Luke and Cleopas:

beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. — Luke 24:27

The OT tells us about Christ, so we need to read the OT from the perspective of Christ incarnated, crucified and resurrected.

When Isaiah tells us that the Lord of hosts has a day against all these things that lead us to sin, we are allowed to understand that day as the day of the resurrection. God never wanted for His creation to be apart from Him or used to separate us from Him. So, He became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ. He waged war against all that separates us from Him by going to the Cross. He rose from the dead and with our humanity ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father in glory. In Christ we have the means by which to overcome all that separates us from God.

Isaiah 2:3-11

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

For you have forsaken the ways of your people, O house of Jacob. Indeed they are full of diviners from the east and of soothsayers like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with foreigners. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. And so people are humbled, and everyone is brought low– do not forgive them! Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty. The haughty eyes of people shall be brought low, and the pride of everyone shall be humbled; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. — Isaiah 2:5-11

In this reading we are called to compare God with man — specifically, man without God. We are told that the house of Jacob has turned its back on God. Instead of placing their hope and faith in God, they turn to diviners and soothsayers. Despite this, they have apparently found success — their land is full of gold, silver, horses and chariots; however, these are the symbols of success according to the world, not according to God. In the face of the glory of God’s majesty, we shall be brought low and be humbled.

The reason for this has to do with out nature. God, by nature, is unchanging and eternal — “You are God ineffable, beyond comprehension, invisible, beyond understanding, existing forever and always the same,” as we say in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. In comparison, we are by nature changeable and finite. God brought us out of nothing and without God to sustain us, it is to nothing that we shall eventually return.

Despite all of our efforts and despite all of the riches the world may have to offer, all of it is for nought without God. All the silver, gold, horses and chariots in the world cannot stop decay, disease or death.

In the end, we are dust. Only God, through His ineffable, incomprehensible, invisible, unchanging and eternal nature, can sustain us beyond our limited and finite nature. Only God can save. Thus, we are asked to walk in the light of God, within His indescribable and eternal glory in order to allow Him to share with us life everlasting. Amen.

Isaiah 1:19-2:3

A longstanding question about Christianity is the apparent difference between the jealous, wrathful God of the OT and the God of sacrificial love of the NT. One of the first persons to point out this apparent dichotomy was Marcion. Ultimately, he refused to believe that the God of the OT and the God of the NT were one in the same. As as a result, he was thrown out of the Roman church along with all of his money. One of the passages that might have led Marcion to his conclusions could have been Isaiah 1:24, which speaks to a wrathful OT God:

Therefore says the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies, and avenge myself on my foes! (NRS)

This translation reflects the Greek, where the translators interpreted the Hebrew by using the word ὁ θυμὸς, which means wrath or anger. Compare this to the NKJ translation:

Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.

This treads closer to the Hebrew where the phrase translated “I will ease me” is derived from a compound word containing these three parts: to have compassion, to be sorry, and to be consoled.

Taken all together, this gives us two images of God:

A Father who is punishing a wayward child — out of compassion, with sorrow and consoled by the good it will eventually do.

A God who, out of compassion, sorrow and consoled by the His ultimate victory, will not stand by and let His people and His creation wallow in the rebellion and its consequences of sin and death — the enemies of God.

Yesterday was our first step upon our lenten journey towards Holy Week and Pascha. One of the purposes of the fast is to free up time within our busy schedules to dedicate to prayer, reading Scripture and serving others. To that end, I have decided to start logging posts about my experience of reading the OT readings for Lent. Over the course of Lent, the Church reads sections of the OT during the week. These readings start with Isaiah (from the Prophets), Genesis (from the pentateuch — the first five books of the OT) and Proverbs (from the Wisdom writings). As this is a lot of information to write about, I’m going to concentrate my efforts on those sections the Church reads from the Prophets — in this case, Isaiah.

Isaiah 1:1-20

Isaiah lived around the 8th-7th century B.C. at a time when Israel was split into two Kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah). Assyria was growing in power and turned its armies upon the Northern Kingdom, conquered it and enslaved its peoples. Isaiah fled to Judah in order to warn the people there to trust in God alone.

He offers us a vision of desolation brought about by a rebellious people; however, at the end of this first reading from Isaiah, we are given hope:

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. — Isaiah 1:18-20

This hope is echoed in Psalm 50:9 (51:7):

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

This cleansing is possible through obedience. In the Greek, the phrase translated as “obedient” is εἰσακούσητέ μου which literally means “listen to me.” This phrase is coupled with the call to “reason together” with God. In the Hebrew, this phrase literally means “to argue” and is reflected in the Greek with διαλεχθῶμεν, from the verb “to refute.” Imagine, God is actually asking us to argue with Him!

In other words, rebellion against God is to completely turn our back on Him — to refuse even to argue with Him. The first step towards salvation — being washed clean and made whiter than snow — is to face God, argue with Him and listen to His side of the story.

St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans 13:11-14; 14:1-4
Matthew 6:14-21

Today we stand at the cusp of Great Lent, which starts tomorrow. On this day, the Church commemorates the expulsion of Adam from Paradise. This morning in Orthros we sang:

Wretch that I am, I disobeyed Your good commandment, O my Lord. And being stripped of Your glory, alas! with shame I am laden. And I have been evicted from the pure delights of Paradise. — Exaposteilaria for the Sunday of Forgiveness

Note that the Church poetically uses the first person, making all of us Adam exiled from the garden. Today, the Church reminds us all that we are in the world — we are fallen. Every one of us is born into sin and every day we sin — we do things that separate us from God. Like Adam, we live in a world that exists outside Paradise and that if left to its own devices would return to the nothing from whence it came. Yet, St. Paul encourages us in today’s Epistle:

Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand — Romans 13:11

We are reminded that our goal — the end of our journey through the trials and tribulations of Great Lent is this:

Please note who Christ is lifting up from the tomb — Adam and Eve. To continue the metaphor, you and I are Adam lying in the tomb in the dark. Christ Himself is standing over us with His hand extended, waiting for us to take that hand and be lifted up into the Kingdom.

During the whole history of salvation, God has never tread upon our freedom. He allowed Adam and Eve the freedom to reject Him. He still allows us, to this day, that very same freedom. He allows us to participate in salvation — it is up to us whether or not we reach out and take His hand to allow Him to lift us up into the Kingdom.

This freedom is illustrated in today’s Gospel Reading when we hear Christ telling us:

If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. — Matthew 6:14

God gives us the freedom and the power to participate in our own judgement as we stand before the Judgement Seat. We have the freedom to determine by what standard God judges us. Thus, God wants us to participate in our own salvation. He wants us to reach up out of the tomb and take His hand. He wants us to act.

In today’s Epistle, St. Paul implores us to this action and participation:

Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day — Romans 13:12-13

The Church takes this image and expands it in a hymn we sang this morning during Orthros:

The stadium of virtue is now open; those who wish to compete, enter therein, girded for the good contest of Lent, for those who compete according to the rules shall receive their laurels rightfully. Taking up the full armor of the Cross, let us do battle against the Enemy. As an impregnable wall, we have the Faith, prayer as our breastplate, and acts of mercy as our helmet. Instead of sword, there is fasting, which cuts every evil from the heart. He who does this shall attain a true crown from Christ, the King of all, on Judgment Day — Lauds for the Sunday of Forgiveness

To place this imagery in the metaphor of our being Adam in the tomb, we reach out toward Christ to take His hand by taking up the Cross, praying, giving alms and fasting. In other words, the purpose of Great Lent, with its fasting, its extra services and the call to pray and give alms is to re-orient ourselves to Christ — to actively participate in our own salvation. We do that by reducing the amount of time we normally spend on things like preparing food, watching TV, going to movies, going out on a Friday night, reading romance novels — things we indulge in for ourselves — and dedicate that time for prayer, reading Scripture, going to the extra services during Lent and giving out time and treasures to worthy causes. We make the effort to reach out from the tomb to grab onto Christ’s extended hand, so that at the end of this journey, He may lift us up into the Kingdom and the Resurrection.

May we have the courage and the strength to put on the full armor of the Cross, the breastplate of prayer, the helmet of alms-giving and the sword of fasting so that we are active participants in our own salvation. May the Holy Spirit guide our hands as we reach out of the darkness — out of the tomb — and take the hand of our Lord, God and Saviour so that we might be lifted up into the Kingdom and the Resurrection. Amen.

Matthew 25:31-46

Today is the third Sunday of the Triodion. More popularly known as Meatfare Sunday (we like to think with our stomachs and today is the last day we eat meat until Pascha), today is actually the Sunday of the Last Judgment. We are confronted with images of the end times. In the Gospel reading, we are told by Christ that:

When the Son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. — Matthew 25:31-33

During Orthros this morning the Church prays:

When You come down to the earth, O God, in Your glory, all things will cower tremulous, and a river of fire will draw before Your Judgment Seat; the books shall be opened up, and public knowledge will things hidden be. Rescue me, then, I pray, from unquenchable fire, and count me worthy to stand at Your right hand, O You, the most righteous Judge. — Kontakion of Judgement Sunday

These disturbing images come from the Book of Daniel:

As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took his throne, his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and flowed out from his presence. — Daniel 7:9-10

All of these passages belong to a genre within Scripture called Apocalyptic Literature. Ask the average American what “apocalypse” means and they will likely say something about the end of the world. The literal meaning in Greek, however, is “the unveiling.” In English, the more accurate translation of apocalypse comes from Latin — “revelation.” In other words, when we read these passages in Scripture, we must realize what is being unveiled and revealed. Most of the time, we find out about God and or relationship with Him.

For example, in Scripture, fire is used over and over again to show us the presence of God. There was fire at the burning bush when God revealed Himself to Moses (Exo 3:2). God led the people of Israel towards the Red Sea with a pillar of fire (Exo 13:21). God sent fire from heaven to consume Elijah’s sacrifice in his confrontation with the priests of Baal (1Ki 18:38). The Holy Spirit descends upon the Apostles like fire at Pentecost (Acts 2:3). Thus, when we read about the River of Fire at the Judgement Seat used in today’s hymns and in Daniel, it tells us that we will all come into the full presence of God. Everyone of us will come face to face with our sins — how far we have separated ourselves from God.

If we have spent a life denying God and actively trying to be apart from Him, this experience will be painful — the full weight of our sins will come upon us all at once. If, on the other hand, we have been striving to be with God, by coming face to face with our sins on a daily basis — crying out “Lord have mercy upon me a sinner!” — this meeting of God in glory will be familiar, welcome and triumphant.

In today’s Gospel, Christ reveals to us a mechanism by which to measure our own progress towards Him, by revealing His relationship with humanity. Since He took on and shares our human nature, we should see Christ in our fellow human beings. Let me be clear, this is not just our fellow Christians, but everyone. We are to see Christ in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and even those in prison that may have gone on a killing spree and murdered a dozen small children. Everyone is made in the image and likeness of God. Everyone is the icon of Christ because He took on our human nature. There is no one that has ever been born or ever will be born that does not share their human nature with the human nature that God took to Himself in the person of Christ.

If, then, we acknowledge this reality that everyone is the image and likeness of God and the icon of Christ, it should show in our actions — it should show in the way we treat our fellow human beings. We are called to love the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick and those in prison the way God does. He was willing to come to us, to suffer and to die for us. Therefore, we should be willing to go to and serve those who are hungry, thirsty, strange, sick and imprisoned.

This passage, on its surface, is about almsgiving — one of the three main activities we will be actively engaged in during Lent; however, it is possible to give alms and still be a goat. If we are merely giving alms with no understanding of the person we are giving to, we have failed to see Christ in them. This is beautifully stated by a 20th century martyr — St. Maria of Paris — speaking about her charitable organization Orthodox Action:

. . . we are committed to the personal principle in the sense that absolutely no
one can become for us a routine cipher, whose role is to swell statistical tables. I
would say that we should not give away a single hunk of bread unless the recipient
means something as a person for us. — Pearl of great price: the life of Mother Maria Skobtsova 1891-1945 by S. Hackel

Luke15:11-32

Today is the second Sunday of the Triodion — the liturgical book the Church uses in the weeks leading up to and during Great Lent. Today, we hear our Lord, God and Saviour tell us the parable of the Prodigal Son. This is one of the most beloved of all the parables in the Bible, partly because its metaphor is so rich and so deep. There is so much that can be said about this parable, that it poses a major challenge for priests all around the world today — which diamond to I mine today?

The diamond that I want to highlight today are three words — “ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἐλθὼν” (Luke 15:17) — and how they fit into the greater narrative of the Triodion and our own preparation for Great Lent. In English, ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἐλθὼν sounds a bit strange: “he came to himself.” We could imagine the Prodigal Son walking down the street and happening upon himself working away in the pig sty. As weird as this sounds, if we add one more element to this story, it begins to make sense. The Prodigal then asks, “Who is this guy starving as he feeds the pigs?”

This is a very important question, “who is the Prodigal Son?” Poetically, the Church answers this question for us this morning through her hymns. At Orthros we hear over and over again that we are the Prodigal:

I return, and cry to You the compassionate Father, “I have sinned against heaven and before You, and I am not worthy to be called Your son. Treat me as one of Your hirelings, O God, and have mercy on me.” — Lauds

The gifts of my soul I have squandered with abandon. So, having arisen, once again I return to You and cry, “Treat me as one of Your hirelings.” — Lauds

So the Church turns this question around: who are we? On one hand, we are the sons and daughters of God, made in the image and likeness of God. On the other, we are sinners living, working and starving in the pig sty of our own sins. Today we are called to come to ourselves and come face to face with the reality of sin — how far we have removed ourselves from God our Father. We are to see the reality of how we have squandered the gifts that He has given us. We are to come to the realization that our soul is starving. Most importantly, however, we are to understand that this is not who we are meant to be. We are to come to ourselves — the person that God created us to be.

God did not create us only to see us suffer and die in sin. We are the sons and daughters of God. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and He cannot abide the sight of His creation dying. Already our Father is running from His house to gather us up in His arms to kiss us and welcome us home with a feast. All we need to do is come to ourselves and see our sin, see the image and likeness of God, fall down upon our knees as did the Publican last week and cry out, “Lord have mercy upon me a sinner!”

This action may very well bring to mind the scene from the movie the Godfather where Michael Corleone is at church baptizing his godson while his goons are out murdering his rivals. The idea being that we can go to the confessional, tell the priest all of our sins and go back to being our sinful selves. Michael Corleone is exactly like the Pharisee from last week. He is using God as a tool to advance his own status — to give himself that alibi so that when the police try to find out who is responsible for all these hits, he can say, “I was at church baptizing my godson.” He is still in the pig sty. If we don’t change the way we behave — if we don’t remove those things in our lives that separate us from God — we will remain in the pig sty. We will not even know that we are still there. This is why we are called to come to ourselves. We must see the reality of where we are in our lives and in our relationship with God. The reason that year after year the Church gives us the Triodion and the Great Fast is to allow us to come face to face with where we are in our relationship with sin and God.

During the fast we attempt to fast, give alms to the poor and pray. These are spiritual exercises. These are tools that the Church gives us to use in the battle against sin — those things in our lives that pull us away from God. Each tool can be used to combat different kinds of sin. When we read the Fathers, we find that they have classified three types of sin:

Irascible (wrath, despair)

Concupisent (lust, greed)

Intellectual (vainglory, pride)

Fasting combats irascible sins. By denying ourselves food and taking control of hunger, we not only train ourselves self-control, but we can more easily sympathize with others who are also suffering. Almsgiving combats consupisent sins. When we freely give to others, we shift the focus from our own selfish needs and despires to the real needs of others. Prayer combats intellectual sins. The very act of praying admits that we cannot do this by ourselves. We pray to God knowing that without him we can do nothing.

So every year we set off on this journey towards Pascha — towards the Resurrection. Upon this journey we fast, we give alms and we pray. We exercise spiritually. We use these tools that the Church has given us to come to ourselves — to realize where we are in our lives and in relationship with God. We work our way back towards Him — into the loving embrace of the Father who is waiting with open arms to kiss us, to clothe us and welcome us back into His household.

Let me leave you with another hymn that we sing at the Vespers of the Prodigal Son:

Brethren, let us learn the meaning of this mystery. For when the Prodigal Son ran back from sin to his Father’s house, his loving Father came out to meet him and kissed him. He restored to the Prodigal the tokens of his proper glory, and mystically He made glad on high, sacrificing the fatted calf. Let our lives, then, be worthy of the loving Father who has offered sacrifice, and of the glorious Victim who is the Saviour of our souls. — Stichera of Vespers for the Prodigal Son

Remember, that Christ went to the Cross for us, for exactly this purpose: so that we might come into our Father’s house, that we may partake of His meal and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.